Oak Ridge National Laboratory has hired David Womble, a leader in high-performance computing and former executive at Sandia National Laboratories, to direct its artificial intelligence work.

Womble began as AI Program Director on October 30, a press release said. AI stands for artificial intelligence.

Womble’s responsibilities include guiding ORNL’s AI and machine learning strategy for high-performance computing, ensuring broad scientific impacts to the missions of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Science, and providing long-range program planning and project leadership, the press release said.

“In more than three decades in computing, Womble has won two R&D100 awards and the Association for Computing Machinery’s Gordon Bell Prize, awarded each year ‘to recognize outstanding achievement in high-performance computing,'” the press release said. [Read more…]

Pictured above are Tony Spezia, left, president and CEO of Covenant Health, and Barry Goss, founder and CEO of Pro2Serve. (Submitted photo)

Professional Project Services Inc., or Pro2Serve, and Covenant Health have formed VortexT Analytics Inc., a strategic partnership that will address the rapidly evolving field of big data analytics in health care, a press release said.

The joint venture will use VortexT, a data analytics software based on algorithms originally developed and patented by Oak Ridge National Laboratory and licensed and further advanced by Pro2Serve. VortexT is currently being used in critical national security applications and is producing valuable data, the press release said.

“VortexT analyzes more data in less time and at less cost, and produces more valuable information than other big data analytics technologies,” Goss said. “We also hold field-of-use licenses for applying the technology to the insurance, financial services, and legal services industries.” [Read more…]

The Smithsonian Institution and Oak Ridge National Laboratory have announced a new partnership to support collaborative research programs and science education efforts. This is the first partnership between Oak Ridge National Laboratory and the Smithsonian, which was formalized during the signing of a memorandum of understanding, or MOU, on Thursday, June 12.

The Smithsonian and Oak Ridge National Laboratory both examine many of the world’s most complex and time-sensitive scientific problems and support many research programs that complement and reinforce each other. They also support science education to impact students and teachers from elementary school through post-doctoral studies. The MOU, signed by Smithsonian Secretary Wayne Clough and ORNL Director Thom Mason, creates a framework for future collaboration between the two organizations that leverages the strengths of each.

“The Smithsonian is proud to partner with another organization that realizes that basic research is vital to the future of the nation, and that knowledge about the natural world is inherently valuable to society,” Clough said. “This agreement will help us each maximize our strengths and achieve our common goals across a broad spectrum of scientific endeavor.” [Read more…]